Friday, February 27, 2009

Two years ago, I guest dj-ed on Radio Misterioso, the program of "In-depth conversations on the paranormal alternating with weird music and audio." It's hosted by Greg "SpaceBrother" Bishop, one of our pre-eminant weird-ologists, and the man behind "Flying Saucer Music" and the new "Music/Not Music."

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Previously On Lost are a Brooklyn-based band that watch each episode of the "Lost" TV series and quickly write a song about it, posting it online before the next week's episode. It's a great, very entertaining way to remind you of all the confusing stuff in the show's increasingly labyrinthine plot.

Musically it's quite diverse and theatrical, of definite interest to fans of, say, Sparks, or They Might Be Giants. Check out this girl-group/doo-wop pastiche:

Their debut album, "The Tale of Season 4 and The Oceanic Six" is now available from their MySpace site. Yep, they start at season 4, so if you want to get hep to the first three seasons, you're on your own, sport.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Here's a real outsider oddity: an autobiographical album of original songs and spoken-word narration from an elderly woman recounting her life as a pioneering female Jewish cantor. This 1997 release apparently came with her book of the same name, "Trusting The Song That Sings Within." Looks like you can still buy it.

Dora B. Krakower's singing isn't as horrific as, say, Mrs. Miller or Leona Anderson, but the spare piano accompaniment certainly doesn't hide her voice or pretty it up with lush orchestrations. You get to hear it in all it's operatic glory.

So if you want to hear an older woman singing about her "drooping derriere," look no further then the first song. The second tune contains the memorable lyric: "Shall I recant from the chant/ like a toady syncophant," which she pronounces "psycho-phant."

Monday, February 16, 2009

Jews For Jesus. It sounds like a joke, doesn't it? Jewish comedian Jackie Mason said there's no such thing as a Jewish Christian: "You're either a table or a chair." But they are a real organization, and, like most religions, they have music.

A group with the somewhat unwieldy name of The Liberated Wailing Wall (now, how are they gonna fit THAT onto t-shirts?) have been singing the praises of Y'shua ("Jesus" in Hebrew) since the early '70s, and much of their music is available for free (scroll halfway down this page.) Some of it still retains that early-'70s "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" feel to their vocal harmonies, but they command a wide range of styles, most successfully when they kick out the klezmer jams.

Klezmer is a frantic Eastern European polka-like dance with a punk-rock tempo. It's lots of fun, especially when it's a showtune-like bar mitzvah song about a young Jewish boy accepting Jesus. Kinda weird that's it's sung by a woman, but, then again, so is the entire concept of Jewish Christians.

Monday, February 09, 2009

You may have heard that The Boston Phoenix diabolically extracted all the bad words from President Obama's audiobook reading of his book "Dreams From My Father." Courtesy of the UK's Rediculant, here is an inevitable remix, and a catchy 2-and-a-half-minute bit of 'tard-tronica it is, indeed:

This comes on the heels of producer Revo Lucian's remix of actor Christian "Batman" Bale's on-set meltdown. Lucian's done this before, with a Barbra Streisand on-stage rant, and he throws a bit of Babs into this mix as well:

Thursday, February 05, 2009

As a tribute to the recently deceased Lux Interior, lead singer of one of my favorite bands The Cramps, I will not be posting any Cramps material because all the other blogs are doing that (as well they should.) Instead, I'll post some absolutely wonderful, should-have-been-hits ripped-from-vinyl obscurities that I think Lux would have liked.A "rat fink" was an insult, the crazed character created by pioneering artist/car designer "Big Daddy" Roth, and (as "Rat Pfink") the title mock-superhero in the film "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" by legendary cult film director Ray Dennis Steckler, who also passed away recently. These tunes all come from thefertile late '50s/early '60s music world that The Cramps drew their life's work from: novelty, surf, garage, rockabilly. Low-down, sleazy, bursting with energy and subversive wit, this is what rock'n'roll was all about, and what Lux & Co. were dedicated to preserving.

In the days before the internet and the reissue mania, there was no way to hear this kind of music unless you were an obsessed record collector, as The Cramps were. Their covers of songs like these brought a whole new world to my (and countless others) tender eardrums.